(Tomica pictured above...)
June 1991
Jada
Since Eric and I's wedding, things had been going pretty well between us. Eric and I had been trying for another baby and the kids were growing so fast. We had to upgrade houses just for more space.
Eric and I's relationship wasn't perfect but I didn't expect perfection. One thing we had been at odds about was my relationship with Pac. When Pac called the house, Eric would get highly upset. He was convinced that Tupac was madly in love with me or something. As much as I tried to explain that we were only friends, Eric felt otherwise and I couldn't change his mind.
Our friendship put a lot of tension between us. Since our last argument, Pac had become very distant. He didn't bother to call anymore and neither did I.
Other than that, our marriage was great.
Another day had been spent at the shop and I could honestly say that we were doing pretty well. Over the past year and half, I had managed to build up my clientele. With the help of a few friends, word had gotten around quick about my shop. We were booked at the moment and I couldn't be any happier.
Eventually Kim came to work with me, which I loved. She did an amazing job of helping me run the shop when I needed help. She did hair from time to time, but was more of an esthetician. Either way, I enjoyed working side by side with her.
As soon as I had gotten one client out of my chair, another had just walked in. I quickly walked over to the front desk to assist her.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Tomica." She said.
I flipped through my appointment book to find that she was just on time for her hair appointment she had previously scheduled. I motioned for her to follow me and walked her over to Kim's station.
"Hey Kim can you take her? I have another client coming in the next five minutes." I said.
Kim nodded. "Sure. You can follow me to the back." She says leading her to the wash station.
A few minutes passed before my next client walked in. While getting started on her hair, Kim filled me in on what had happened is the past few months.
________
"I put out Amerikka's most wanted and it took off! I also brought a house on behalf of what you said! Now give me my money Brian!" Cube yelled.
"I'm sorry Cube." Brian said.
"So you can't help me?" Cube asked impatiently. Brian shakes his head, throwing his hands up. "I'm sorry man. My hands are tied here."
"Ok." Cube nodded.
Oshea walked out Brian's office and out of Priority Records. Kim watched him as he popped the trunk of the car and rummaged around in it.
"What happened Oshea?" Kim asked concerned.
He ignored her and put the bat on his shoulder. His friends followed him inside and Kim could sense that something was wrong. She stepped out of the car and ran after him and inside the building.
"Baby what are you doing?" Kim asked following him. "You could go to jail."
"I'm not letting anybody take advantage of me anymore." He says walking back
into Brian's office. Brian instantly rose out of his hair.
"Cube what are you doing?" He asks hiding behind his desk.
"You taking out what you owe me." Cube says.
He raised up his bat and smashed the table. Kim stood by, completely speechless.
"Cube please!" Brian yelled in fear.
"You think I give a damn about these records! This my shit!" He smashed all the records on the wall and walked over to Brian' desk and pointed the bat at him.
"You taking out what you owe me."
_________
Kim
"Damn. Cube went in like that?" Jada asked shocked. I nodded my head and continued doing my client's hair. "Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do."
I had never seen O'Shea that angry ever. When Cube left the group, he spent a lot of time away from home while working on his first album. I was glad that he was finally back home after our time apart. Things were finally looking up for us. We had just brought a nice house up here is L.A. and I even got a new car.
What worried me is the situation with Jerry. Since Cube's departure over the royalties and the money, I wasn't sure that he could be trusted. And on top of that, the group was at odds with Cube. Things weren't supposed to be this way. We were a family.
"Jay are you sure that you and Eazy can trust Jerry? You need to talk to your husband." I said.
She shrugged. "We've discussed it. Eric says that he has everything under control and that there would be no N.W.A if it weren't for Jerry." She stops and looks at me. "I mean the money coming in is good and they've been working on their new EP. I let Eric handle it, he knows more about the business than I do."
"Have you heard it?" I asked curiously. "No I haven't. But I'm pretty sure it's good." She says.
I heard the bell on the door ring and looked up to see Eazy making his way in with our lunch. It was crazy how he just so happened to walk in when we were discussing the situation.
"Hey Baby." He said placing a kiss on Jay's lips. "How's everything going?"
"Better now that you're here."She says smiling. A couple of "Ooh's" filled the shop as we all watched Jada and Eazy have their moment.
Eazy shook his head. "Anyways, I brought y'all some fat burger." He gave Jada her bag and handed me mines. "E did you tell them-" He nods while sitting in an empty chair next to Jada. "Yes no onions and no pickles. You only reminded me a hundred times."
"Well thanks." I said giving him a fake smile.
Eazy stayed for a while, being annoying and petty as usual. Every once in a while he'd come and keep us company while we worked on clients. Since Cube's departure from N.W.A, we hadn't seen much of Eazy since O'Shea wasn't on the best of terms with the group.
I felt that the boys should sit down and talk, but they were all stubborn. E and Jay were Anthony's godparents for crying out loud. We were all good friends and I couldn't believe that they were gonna let this fame get in the way of years of friendship. We were all friends before the money but things change.
But I couldn't go notice the girl in my chair staring at E and she winked at him on the slick. E didn't notice but Jada and I did. As I was flat ironing her hair I purposely burned her.
"Oww!" She said holding her head.
"I'm sorry umm.." I said trying to remember her name. "It's Tomica!" She exclaims rubbing his head. "Are you sure that you know what you're doing?" She asks clearly pissed off.
"If you're gonna be rude, then you can step." Jada says. Tomica gets up from her chair and rips off her cape. "Maybe I will." She grabs her purse from the chair before storming out of the salon.
Jada gave me a high five and went back to finishing her clients hair. I sat down in my chair and looked over at Eric who was amused by what had just went down. "You know that was messed up right?" Eazy asked.
I shrugged. "Maybe."
Eric
I opened my eyes and glanced over at the clock that read 2:00 A.M. I flipped over and looked over to find that Jada wasn't laying next to me. Sitting up from the bed, I let out a yawn and got up from the bed. I exited out bedroom to find the lights in downstairs.
I made my way down the staircase and found Jada in the living room on the phone. Her back was turned to me and she was busy talking to someone on the other end of the line.
Who was calling this late?
"Well I can come right now if you need me to." Jada says tiredly into the phone. "Are you sure that you can wait until the morning Pac?" She asks. My eyebrow raised in confusion and I walked over to her and grabbed the phone.
"Hello?" I said into the phone. "Look I called for Jay. So why don't you just hand the phone back to her?" Tupac says on the other end.
"It's two in the morning. I'm sure whatever you need to discuss with my wife, can wait until the morning? Okay? Goodnight." I said hanging up the phone. Jada looked at me in disbelief and I shrugged, walking away from her.
"Eric why did you do that? We were talking about something important." Jada says from behind me.
"At two in the damn morning Jay? What's so important that he decided to call my house this late?" I asked. "Your house?" Jada retorted.
I sighed, knowing that she would take what I said literally. I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration and looked at her. "I didn't mean it like that Jay. Look baby I don't wanna argue."
"He got arrested and he needed someone to bail him out Eric." I turned around and walked away from her. "What am I supposed to do? Leave him there? Eric he has no family here."
"Jada that sounds like a personal problem to me." I said turning to face her once again. "If it's that important, you can call him back in the morning."
"You are unbelievable." She says pushing past me. "And next time I answer the phone and he's on the other end, I'm putting a damn block on the phone." I turned the lights off and made my way back up the steps.
"Eric it's not like I asked him to call me!" Jada says as she makes her way up the stairs. "Rii is sleeping right down the hall." I reminded her while walking past her and down the hall. I peeked in on Henrii to find her still sleeping.
I closed the door and walked further down the hall and into our bedroom. She follows me in and shuts the door behind her.
"Eric I don't know how many time I have to say it. Nothing is going on between us."
"Just drop it Jada." I climbed back into bed and readjusted my pillow. Jada gets in beside me and turns away from me.
While we were both upset, I pulled her closer to me anyways. She laid head on my bare chest and wraps her leg around me. Once we both got comfortable I closed my eyes and tried to fall back asleep.
"Eric you're the one I love. Okay?" Jada says,
"I know Jay." I said sleepily. "I love you too."